Aimee Joyaux

The world is heating up. These works on canvas explore an exaggerated visual response to the combative and imposing rhetoric blasting from all sides. My thoughts here explode on the page like rolling dice that hit the wall. Bright colors and graphic shapes crash into the picture plane. Half glasses of water, the shells of building, and shape shifting folds are drawn to characterize a sense of displacement like a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.

Square paintings are 31” x 31”, pink rectangles are 30” x 36”, white rectangle is 31” x 25”.

Acrylic, oil, shellac, oil sticks, pastels, pencil on canvas. 2017-18

City Lots

There is a particular collective memory in the South, one haunted by God. A stubborn pride controls a narrative of cultural patrimony in a visible process where an enduring white memory and black resistance to it clash with renewed vengeance heightened by social media.

This work borrows from that vernacular to challenge notions of race and privilege. City Lots is the second in a group of mixed media drawing projects using found objects to explore the political struggle for power and identity that favors whites over blacks.

Taunts to “speak for yourself”, “practice sorting faces”, and “#UB2” challenge the viewer to reconcile disparate truths. Pitting slave songs “call & response” against children’s games “finders keepers” illuminates power and privilege.

Bright colors and graphic shapes crash into the picture plane. Turned over cars, the shells of building, half glasses of water, and scattered chess pieces are drawn to characterize a sense of displacement, a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.

The color line of today is as apparent as it ever was. Unfortunately, it is expanding. A more inclusive swath of“otherness” encroaches on ideals of white supremacy and warns that everybody’s troubles are coming by threes and by twos.

These images were made in 2016/17 and measure 18" x 24" each.

These mixed media works from 2018 are part of my process for working out ideas, colors and shapes for larger paintings. They are made on mat board scraps using shellac, oil stick, conte crayons, and colored pencils. Square images are 12” x 12” and rectangles are 15” x 11.5”.

The Box Project

The Box Project uses chipboard boxes, the color of paper bags, to explore the narrative surrounding African American skin color.  It draws intentionally from the story of Henry “Box” Brown, a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate to abolitionists in Philadelphia.

Also implied in the work is the paper bag test, a type of racial discrimination practiced in the United States. A brown paper bag was used as a way to determine whether or not an individual could have certain privileges; only individuals with a skin color that is the same color or lighter than a brown paper bag were allowed the advantages of their light skinned brethren. The test was used in the 20th century within many social institutions such as African-American sororities, fraternities, and churches. In addition, brown paper bags were used in multi-racial social events. The term is also used in reference to larger issues of class and social stratification within the African-American population.

Issues of race and color are further complicated with the immigration debate as we expand ideas of other and a populist rage with overt edges of white supremacy and renewed interest in re/segregation are taking hold of the public consciousness. Designed as an installation and performance about power and those without it, The Box Project confronts the viewer and the maker with questions about complicity and the walls with which we surround ourselves.

Eric Garner made this statement famous in 2014 with his last gasping statement to police who were choking him based on a perceived threat. The threat, it seemed or the source of fear for the officers, was his blackness. The hashtag has gone on to mean many things.

In this group of posters, I’ve printed the statement over and over again on a set of paper colored in the mix of the rainbow. Gasping, choking, withholding, panic, fear and despair can keep us frozen, unable to breathe for countless reasons - asthma, poisonous air, anxiety, or in Eric Garner’s case, because someone is literally and physically choking you.

Letterpress on paper, 28” x 22, 2019

I continue to be baffled by the white nationalist agenda which positions people of color as separate but not equal. The Mason jar stands in as a black body here as I explore the diaspora. Shellac, oil stick, conte crayon, oil pastel, colored pencil on mat board. Squares 12” x 12”, rectangles 15” x 11.5”, 2018

The Curriculum Lab was a collaboration spearheaded by JLee in 2017. Ten artist were each given 20 discarded library cards with which to work. The only rule - we couldn't make our final pieces larger than the original card (these images were taken before I cropped and completed my cards). One pice from each artist went into a larger grid - grids are for sale and all proceeds go to the Early Literacy through the Arts program. I was able to get cards related to my current inquiry around race in America, the roots of slavery, the dark middle passage, and genocide.

The sketchbook project is a "thing". It's like the Monster Drawing Rally - a performance / event / exhibition. You buy an empty book, fill it, send it back to Brooklyn and they keep it in a travelling library. They also digitize the books. 

My book was in response to the Sandy Hook School shooting in 2012. There were just enough pages to "memorialize" all 27 victims, whom I have identified by name and age here. 

Lady Liberty in Distress

Triggered by the increasing polarity of the political discourse and inspired by the Women’s March on Washington, I began a series of protest posters shortly after the election.  The primary symbolism in this work is the Statue of Liberty.

A universal symbol of freedom and an emblem of friendship between two nations, Lady Liberty was conceived and designed to enlighten the world. She is considered the Mother of Exiles, greeting millions of immigrants and embodying hope and opportunity for those seeking a better life in America.

Times have changed. This work borrows the notion of upside down flags as symbols of distress or protest against the government. Here, Lady Liberty crashes into the picture plane from multiple angles and is frequently inverted. Scattered text and image is designed to characterize a sense of displacement, a reactionary free fall in a tumultuous time.

The graphic qualities and aesthetic range of printmaking lend this work a visual cohesion within the vernacular of traditional poster design. Freedom of the press has been a benchmark of our democracy and I use that freedom here to express confusion and concern about issues of cultural patrimony, equity, and human rights.

Much of my current work is a response to a heightened sense of impermanence and the associated anxiety stemming from displacements and the looming threat of extinction and erasure.

Drawing is the fastest way for me to pursue an individual critical inquiry and to address a communal culpability. Marks are like self-portraits or reflections of a personal, internal state, a way of bearing witness to the conversations that dare to suggest we are complicit in the effects of industry and human behavior on habitat.

This group of work was made between 2007 and 2008. All paintings are oil on canvas and are in response to environmental and political pinch points including increased surveillance / decreased personal privacy, climate change, and on-going military conflict throughout the world. Formally, I am pushing color and space in this work in new ways. I had been without a studio for five years at this point, so I dug right in.

I am a collector. DIY culture has had a positive influence on the way I think about process and product. The prototype culture of today suits my visual and conceptual sensibilities.

Life boats and blocks, church ladies - things I see. Birds (the canaries in the coal mine). Water, the currency of the 21st c., and wonky buildings, capitalism in tattered repose. Wrapping and stacking, objects found and made.

Photography is a potent form of bearing witness. The fleeting nature of life can be captured by the camera and expressed in the print. I push the boundaries between the fact of the photograph as object and the way process can reimagine the image and subvert the subject. 

The postmodern disruption of representation and new technologies further splinter the role of the photograph. I'm fascinated with this philosophical debate as it unfolds in front of us.

Sometimes pictures are better than words. I make postcards and small books for friends and family to celebrate or acknowledge a difficult situation or spread some love. I also write fan letters. 

I love stories and I love to work with my hands, so making books felt like a perfect fit immediately. I can sew, fold, cut, paste, draw, print, paint, build. I can be tidy and precise or sloppy. It's the perfect art form.

Bookmaking is like a quilting bee - it can be a very social activity, but is also deeply personal. I have told some secrets in these books.

These images were taken between 2006-07. Wandering the neighborhoods around my new town, I was struck by the beauty and loneliness of these empty houses. One house in particular moved me, 333 Mistletoe St. and I returned several times to photograph it. One day, it was gone and I began photographing other empty lots. Some of these houses have been reclaimed, some are falling further into disrepair and many have been demolished. Entire neighborhoods are beginning to disappear.

In May of 2018 I had a wonderful adventure visiting my friend Quynh in Japan. She was finishing a project at Kamiyama A.I.R., an artist residency program in Kamiyama on the island of Shikoku. We spent a week there among the farmers and their rice fields and then enjoyed a safari of shrines and temples in Kyoto before finishing the trip in the bustling town of Tokyo.

At every juncture I was awed by the craft culture, food, and attention to the seasonal bounty and nuance of the land. It was an inspiring trip and I hope to return. The last images are my sketches and prints, many on book pages I got in thrift stores. I will finalize my reflections over the next few months and consider using them in an application for my own residency, hopefully at the Awagami paper factory.

I learned digital photography when I moved to Petersburg, needed a job and worked for our local newspaper. I used every bit of knowledge I had about the camera, the subject, and light to capture city council meetings, sporting events, carnivals, school plays, graduation ceremonies, car accidents - you name it. 900 pictures a day, whew. It was a great way to learn the city (and the new photography), but grueling work.

The iphone has been a significant contribution to my creative process. A mobile art studio that fits in my pocket and connects me to the entire globe, crazy. 

Petersburg is a special place with an amazing history. We are committed to this community and were really pleased to be able to bring the fantastic project started by Candy Chang - Before I Die, to our town.

I also beg, borrow, and steal other cool projects from the incredible talent in Richmond, so we were fortunate to get some of their extra LOVE letters recently!

As a grad student studying photography in the 90's, nude self portraits seemed to be de rigueur. As a young feminist, reclaiming my body as subject and object was an intellectual exercise as well as an artistic statement. As a person, it felt risky. 

The monster drawing rally is an awesome community event / fundraiser put on by 1708 Gallery in Richmond. One part performance, ± 20 artists working in hour-long shifts (3-4 shifts); one part sweat-shop - all work made is sold for a fixed price ($60) and there is an admission fee -  so, two parts fundraiser. It brings a lot of folks out, families wander back and forth, it's engaging for everyone. It brings the process of art alive and makes a little money for the gallery - win, win, win. 

MDR is a unique way to think about "drawing"; an hour in front of a flock of flaneurs. So, I always plan ahead and come prepared to create a series; quick notes or nods to something. 

I fell in love with letterpress because I fell in love with book making. I fell in love with printmaking in the process.

My letterpress production got a huge infusion when we salvaged hundreds of printing plates from a seed and feed bag company in Richmond in 2011. I also got a proofing press and a few dozen drawers of type. I have more plates than I can ever print - so I started a co-op called cornmealpress, a community print factory. 

I'm very interested in small scale, local production (grown close to home) posters and broadsides that explore language and have begun a series on southern pride or stubborn pride (I use them interchangeably) under the name tarpaperpress.

Digital design offers a plethora of options. I often do pro bono work for local agencies or friends just to have an excuse to play with software. So many ways to solve problems and no messy clean-up.

I don’t do much portraiture but I got a great new video app that is inspiring me. Cinematic  makes beautiful 6 second videos. I’m asking people to look away from the camera and slowly count to 3 and then slowly smile and look at me. The videos are lovely but there is a moment, a decisive moment, when that smile cracks that I’m lovin’!

Practicing gratitude #thesmileproject

The bottom images were made at Appomattox Regional Governors School in Petersburg, where I taught for four years. I kept a large format camera set up in the classroom as a fun distraction. The kids were always happy to pose. These images were made with outdated Polaroid film, I scanned the "throw-away" side and we used the digital files to explore new media tools.

Our house in France can be your house in France! This lovely medieval house, parts of which date from the 1470's and parts a century later, has 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a large patio, and a garage.

Can you imagine if walls could talk. The large fireplace (6.5' x 9') was part of the kitchen for the inn built next door in the 1470's. The space where the current "garage" is was the stable. This is one of the few intact cooking fireplaces in the area.

Located in Valros, a small medieval village with full services. This quaint town is near the autoroute (which offers convenient travel in all directions), about 8km from Pezenas (an amazing antique village filled with artisans) and 45 mins. from Montpellier the 8th largest city in France (a vibrant and stunning university town), and 25 mins. from the sea, 4 hours from Barcelona (which is the way we usually travel) and 4 hrs. to Paris on the TGV ($40 each way).

For information contact the realtor - www.eurotransac.fr or reach out to us directly. 250,000 euros.